Does temporary hair removal affect hair growth?

Temporary hair removal can be split into two method techniques: epilation and depilation.

Depilation is the temporary removal of hair above the skin. This includes shaving, chemical creams or powders, and trimming of hair.

Epilation, on the other hand, is the removal of the entire hair to the root.

While there is a popular misconception that shaving can result in thicker or darker hair growth, this is not in fact true. Shaving, like all depilatory methods, cannot affect hair growth, as it does not reach below the skin’s surface. Your hair follicle meets the skin at a point called the dermal papilla. At this point, blood vessels meet the hair shaft. The hair follicle receives its oxygen and nutrients from the blood flow and stimulates hair growth.

.Cutting or shaving hair, as well as chemical methods of hair removal such as Nair, do not reach the dermal papilla, and thus do not affect the hair’s growth. Epilatory methods, however, do reach below the skin and can change your hair’s growth cycle. Tweezing and waxing can cause enough trauma to stimulate the dermal papilla, causing the hair to grow wider in diameter or, in rare instances, even distort the follicle. In general, tweezing will not reduce the number of hairs that ultimately regrow, and there can be adverse effects that span from pain to potential scarring.

While there has been no research on the effect of long-term waxing, it is possible that it may reduce regrowth through the potential damage of hair follicles that can take place. Any method that removes the entire hair shaft, such as waxing, tweezing, threading, or sugaring, can potentially result in finer or thinner hair, and potentially reduced hair growth over a long period of using the method